ARTESIA — Thomas and Miriam Archibald of Artesia were married June 27, 1959, in St. Louis, Mo., while he was working as an auditor for the CPA firm of Price Waterhouse & Co. Both were recent graduates of the University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.

Thomas was born in 1936 in Carrollton, Mo., the son of John Quirk and Irene D. Archibald. His grandfather, Thomas, was a very prosperous farmer in Carroll County. His father, John, attended college at VMI in Virginia and worked in a Carrollton bank. He has an older sister, Sue A. Ray, who lives in Kirksville, Mo.

Miriam was born in 1937 in St. Louis, the daughter of William B. and Mary Dodson Reed. Her younger sister, Ann, died in her teens. Her grandfather was both a Doctor of Osteopathy (D.O.) and a Medical Doctor (M.D.) Her father was an architect with the well-known civil engineering firm of Sverdrup and Parcel.

With an ROTC commitment to fulfill, Thomas entered the U.S. Army as a 2nd Lt. in Armor in 1960 and never came back to his CPA career. In the following 22 years the Archibald’s literally lived all over the world, had varied increasingly important duty assignments and met thousands of individuals (some very famous).

In addition to being stationed in six U.S. states, they lived in Germany and Belgium, each for three years. Thomas had a tour in Vietnam as a Major with the 23rd Infantry Division. One of his ‘tent-mates’ was Colin Powell (then also a Major). After Vietnam, Thomas was selected by the Army to attend graduate school at the U. of Georgia where he received an MBA and completed all requirements except the dissertation for a Doctorate. Other assignments included the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.; Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.; and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Belgium where he worked for General Alexander Haig.

Thomas retired from the Army while head of the ROTC at Clemson University, S.C. to accept an associate VP position at Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas, Texas. Miriam worked in the Foreign Language Department while at Clemson and then in the Office of Continuing Education at SMU. They remained working at SMU for eight years before accepting new jobs at the U. of Georgia, Athens, Ga. Later, they moved to Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Ga. where they worked for seven years. They both retired from the University System of Georgia in 2002. At that time Thomas was a vice president and Miriam was an office nanager and desktop publisher for the Master of Social Work program.

The Archibald’s had three children, Ann Elise, John Reed and Sarah Alison. John died in infancy while Thomas was serving with the 8th Infantry Division in Germany.

They moved to Artesia in October 2002 to be near Ann Elise, their son-in-law Paul Smith and two granddaughters, Matlin 21 and Sarah 18. Ann Elise works at Yeso Elementary and Paul works at Holly Energy Partners.

The Archibald’s other daughter, Sarah lived in Norfolk, Va., for the last nine years but has recently moved to Artesia. She has a daughter, Brooke 16 who spends summers and other periods in Artesia.

Tom and Miriam are active in the First United Methodist Church. They own a condo in Beaver Creek, Colo., and enjoy ski holidays and traveling. While no event is planned at this time since Thomas is traveling in Europe with two of the granddaughters, please offer them your congratulations when you see either of them!

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